(CNN) – As he waited with parents who feared that their kids were among the 20 children killed at a Connecticut elementary school on Friday, Rabbi Shaul Praver said the main thing he could do for parents was to merely be present.

“It’s a terrible thing, families waiting to find out if their children made it out alive,” said Praver, who leads a synagogue in Newtown, Connecticut, and was among nine clergy gathered with parents at a firehouse near Sandy Hook Elementary School, where the shooting occurred.

“They’re going to need a lot of help,” Praver said of those who are close to the dead.

From the first moments after Friday’s massacre, which also left six adults and the shooter dead, religious leaders were among the first people to whom worried and grieving families turned for help.

Over the weekend, countless more Americans will look to clergy as they struggle to process a tragedy in which so many of the victims were children.

“Every single person who is watching the news today is asking ‘Where is God when this happens?’” says Max Lucado, a prominent Christian pastor and author based in San Antonio.

Lucado says that pastors everywhere will be scrapping their scheduled Sunday sermons to address the massacre.

“You have to address it - you have to turn everything you had planned upside down on Friday because that’s where people’s hearts are,” Lucado says.

“The challenge here is to avoid the extremes – those who say there are easy answers and those who say there are no answers.”

Indeed, many religious leaders on Friday stressed that the important thing is for clergy to support those who are suffering, not to rush into theological questions. A University of Connecticut professor on Friday hung up the phone when asked to discuss religious responses to suffering, saying, “This is an immense tragedy, and you want an academic speculating on the problem of evil?”

“There is no good answer at that time that anyone can hear and comprehend and take in,” said Ian T. Douglas, the bishop for the Episcopal diocese of Connecticut, referring to counseling family and friends of the dead. “They’re crying out from a place of deep pain.”

Praver, the rabbi, will join a memorial service Friday night at Newtown’s St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church.

“We’re going to have a moment of prayer for the victims,” Praver said of the service. “We cannot let it crush our spirit and we march on.”

Some national religious groups are also sending staff to Newtown, with 10 chaplains dispatched from the North Carolina-based Billy Graham Evangelistic Association on Friday.

Public officials including President Obama, meanwhile, turned to the Bible in responding to the shooting. “In the words of Scripture, 'heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds,' ” Obama said from the White House, citing the book of Psalms.

Some religious leaders argue that modern American life insulates much of the nation from the kind of senseless death and suffering that plagues much of the world every day.

“Most of the world, for most of the world’s history, has known tragedy and trauma in abundance,” wrote Rob Brendle, a Colorado pastor, in a commentary for CNN’s Belief Blog after this summer’s deadly shooting in Aurora, Colorado, which left 12 dead.

“You don’t get nearly the same consternation in Burundi or Burma, because suffering is normal to there,” wrote Brendle, who pastored congregants after a deadly shooting at his church five years ago. “For us, though, God has become anesthetist-in-chief. To believe in him is to be excused from bad things.”

Lucado said there was an eerie irony for the Connecticut tragedy coming just before Christmas, noting the Bible says that Jesus Christ’s birth was followed by an order from King Herod to slay boys under 2 in the Roman city of Bethlehem.

“The Christmas story is that Jesus was born into a dark and impoverished world,” Lucado says. “His survival was surrounded by violence. The real Christmas story was pretty rough.”

Many religious leaders framed Friday’s shooting as evidence for evil in the world and for human free will in the face of a sovereign God.

“The Bible tells us the human heart is ‘wicked’ and ‘who can know it?’” the Rev. Franklin Graham said in a statement about the massacre. “My heart aches for the victims, their families and the entire community.”

Many religious leaders also said that such tragedies are a good time for lay people to express doubts about God – or anger.

“This is a time to go deep and pray,” says Lucado. “If you have a problem with God, shake a fist or two at him. If he’s God, he’s going to answer. And if he’s in control, he’ll find a way to let you know.

soundoff(9,195 Responses)

Jeebus

There is no God.

Stop making excuses for your absentee sky Daddy.

December 15, 2012 at 12:24 pm |

Iowan

I can't help but wonder about those people who fight so hard to remove any mention of God at schools, and then complain about how he wasn't there when a tragedy strikes. Notwithstanding the implicit assumption that God is a helicopter parent who should protect us from our own choices, it begs the question: Do you want him there or not?

December 15, 2012 at 12:31 pm |

God

lowan

Did we kick God out of shopping malls, temples, and churches too?

Innocents are killed in all walks of life all over the world and "God" doesn't lift a holly finger to stop it.

Schools are not in the business of indoctrinating children. They are for educating them. 23% of school children are from non-Christian families, why should they be forced to believe in your God? Again, it's not the governments job to turn schools into churches.

Stop making excuses for your absentee sky Dadee and grow up.

December 15, 2012 at 12:38 pm |

Aezel

Where's Zeus?

December 15, 2012 at 12:23 pm |

I Am God

Kratos killed him.

December 15, 2012 at 12:24 pm |

Marc

If I didn't believe in the Bible and God, I would have absolutely nothing I could say or do to make any sense or offer any comfort regarding what happened.

But as a pastor to his people, these are some short answers I put together to minister to those going through bad times

Why did God let this happen? Good and evil are permitted to exist side-by-side in this fallen world for a season until Christ returns to make everything right, to judge the wicked, reward the righteous, and usher in everlasting righteousness, love and peace. Daniel 9:24-27, Matthew 24:6

What's taking Him so long? He's giving us time to repent and turn to Him. The day of reckoning is fast approaching.

What should I tell my kids? The children who died are safe in the loving arms of Jesus for all eternity. Nothing will hurt them ever again, and they will not remember this day of sorrow ever again. God will wipe every tear from our eyes and there'll be no more mourning or sorrow or crying or pain, Revelation 21:4

Is this all God's fault? Not at all. The Bible says he created the world and it was very good. Genesis 1:31. The real culprits are the serpent, sin, and sick individuals who choose to use the freedom God gave them to do evil.

What can I do in the meantime? Pray to God to send a detachment of angels to surround your children and your loved ones, hug your kids a little bit longer, pray to God a little bit stronger, weep with those who weep, mourn with those who mourn- Romans 12:15.

Luke 13:1 – 5 teaches that we do not always know why certain things happen, but we need to be right with God before our time comes.

December 15, 2012 at 12:22 pm |

JWT

Wrong pronoun – you need to be right with your god – there is no reason for any other person to have anything to do with your god.

December 15, 2012 at 12:24 pm |

God

Stop making excuses for your absentee sky Daddy.

Grow up.

December 15, 2012 at 12:25 pm |

Smarter than U

Cute. Hey if this BS flies with someone, great. For more clear thinking folks not burdened with this brainwashing, it offers nothing.

December 15, 2012 at 12:28 pm |

Pray for healing for all

I don't know if anyone on this site has been listening to any of CNN's interviews on this tragedy, but, mental health was mentioned, especially Asperger's condition. Use your search engines to read what the shooter had to endure with this illness throughout his lifetime on this earth.

December 15, 2012 at 12:20 pm |

Marshall

Where's GOD??? He's not in our schools, he's not allowed in. He's not in our public buildings or our sporting events anymore. We have reduced him to standing on the outside looking in. We have systematically removed GOD from our everyday life. The school I grew up in had an assembly every morning that ended with prayers. There is so much more to say to this but, this is not the platform.

December 15, 2012 at 12:20 pm |

I Am God

Here is a question for you? Why bring Christianity to schools that have a majority of Jews, Muslims, Lutherans, and such?

December 15, 2012 at 12:21 pm |

I Am God

Or a mixture of all

December 15, 2012 at 12:22 pm |

sam stone

"We have reduced him to standing on the outside"

If your god can be reduced he isn't much of a god

December 15, 2012 at 12:24 pm |

JWT

Whose prayers Marshall ? Why should people who do not believe in your particular version of a god listen to your prayers. Of course I could be wrong and you would be happy to have your children recite the muslim's prayers.

December 15, 2012 at 12:26 pm |

mama k

And it doesn't say much about parenting skills if parents can't find a way to instill values in their children that they deem important other than trying to rely on public schools where we have a ~23% non-Christian population.

December 15, 2012 at 12:27 pm |

Mary

I wonder if anyone has noticed how our country is changing? This country was founded on Christian beliefs. Whether you believe or not, that is a fact. I look at all of these posts and I see so many people who do not believe in anything. When there are more and more people in an area that do not believe there are consequences to anything they do, things are going to change. For those that say God is not real, explain something to me. We have more and more people doing terrible things to each other and less and less people who are believers. Do you not see a connection? You think in the times past people did not have a gun to protect themselves and their families from other people or animals that would hurt them? The guns have been in the hands for a long time. It is the hands that have changed. One of many problems I see is that people don't have compassion and understanding for each other. Look at these posts. People who do not believe in God are so quick to tell those that do how stupid they think they are. I mean really. There is no Santa, there is no God? Why do you choose to be so mean? Such treatment towards each other is part of the problem. I see a country that is moving away from God and becoming more and more like some of these other places we hear about on the news and learn about in school. Places most of us do not want to live in. I am not going to attack anyone for not believing in God. Why do those who do not believe choose to attack? Where is your sense of love for your fellow man? You claim to be a good person without any religion. If this is true, why are you so angry with those of us that do? If it is so silly and useless to you, why do you bother to argue about it? You think it is fair that you try and convince everyone that there is no God? How does that make you any different than those who try to convince you that there is a God? We have more and more people now that do not believe. You like the society you are trying to fuel? For all of the horrible things that make the news, think of all of them that do not. Ask someone in law enforcement what is going on out there and if they feel we live in a wonderful place. If you can be a loving person who does not believe in God, then do so. Stop trying to insult and be-little all of those who do. The really sad part here is that there are 20 children and 6 adults that are dead. Every single person that was in that building or is the friends and family of any of them have had their lives forever changed. All of the people who have the grim task of stepping foot in that building are hurting. There are hundreds of people who will carry this pain with them until they die. Whether you feel sympathy for these people as a Christian or not, that is what is needed. We could never imagine the pain they are going through. Those of us who do have children are trying to imagine what these parents are going through. When you see a story like this and you look at the posts, you expect to see people saying kind things and talking about different ways to help those that have been hurt. For those who really took the time to read mine, keep reading and tell me what is wrong with society today. Where is the love and compassion for each other? If everyone put all of this negative energy (wow-there is a lot of it here) and did something good with it, all of this posting might mean something.

December 15, 2012 at 12:17 pm |

I Am God

Wrong. If this country was based on Christian beliefs then our forefathers wouldn't have put in the separation of religion and state.

December 15, 2012 at 12:18 pm |

JWT

You believe in god which is fine, but do not project that onto others, many believe there is no god and your personal opinion is no better than theirs.

December 15, 2012 at 12:20 pm |

mama k

That's just nonsense. The key founders were primarily Deists. If one listens to the words of our key founders reflecting on our newly-established nation and government, we more and more hear a call for moderation toward the fundamental Christian sects that were feuding with each other at the time.

Listen to James Madison, POTUS #4, and the chief architect of the U.S. Constitution:

During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution.

(A Remonstrance . . to the Virginia General Assembly in 1785.)

Listen to John Adams, POTUS #2:

I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved – the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced! With the rational respect that is due to it, knavish priests have added prostitutions of it, that fill or might fill the blackest and bloodiest pages of human history. "

(in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, 09/03/1816)

The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature; and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses.

Thirteen governments [of the original states] thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, and which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of mankind.

(from A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America [1787-1788])

Listen to Ben Franklin:

Some books against Deism fell into my hands; they were said to be the substance of the sermons which had been preached at Boyle’s Lectures. It happened that they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them. For the arguments of the Deists, which were quoted to be refuted, appeared to be much stronger than the refutations; in short, I soon became a thorough Deist.

(from his Autobiography)

Thomas Paine was very Deistic. He witness Quakers being hung in Massachusetts by other Christians:

I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church. All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.

Thomas Jefferson had his own Deistic version of the Bible.

Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth.

(from Notes on the State of Virginia)

Of course Deism holds to the belief of God as the creator of the universe. But many Deists also believed that God did not interfere with the lives of his creation. And many Deists disbelieved in all of the "magic" in the Bible – some of them refuting the Bible and Christianity completely.

Jefferson, Washington, Adams, Paine, Mason & Madison all witnessed the violent persecution between Christian sects in their home states around the time the government was being established. So it is of no surprise that they needed a secular government and they knew the only way to enforce freedom of religion was to keep religion out of the government as much as possible.

Listen to James Madison speak about the need for the need to keep religion out of government (Jefferson wasn't the only one to explicitly speak of the separation of church and state):

Every new & successful example therefore of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters, is of importance. And I have no doubt that every new example, will succeed, as every past one has done, in shewing that religion & Govt. will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.

The Civil Govt, tho' bereft of everything like an associated hierarchy, possesses the requisite stability and performs its functions with complete success, Whilst the number, the industry, and the morality of the Priesthood, & the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the Church from the State.

(from letters to Edward Livingston and Robert Walsh)

Madison as president vetoed two bills that he believed would violate the separation of church and state. He also came to oppose the long-established practice of employing chaplains at public expense in the House of Representatives and Senate on the grounds that it violated the separation of church and state and the principles of religious freedom. (Library of Congress – James Madison Papers – Detached memorandum, ca. 1823.)

President John Adams and the U.S. Senate on behalf of the U.S.

As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion;

(from Article 11 of the U.S. treaty ratified with Tripoli in 1797)

Senator John F Kennedy said on Sept. 12, 1960, just prior to his winning the Presidential election:

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute.

Amazing, separation of church and state means the clergy is not to run the state. Alays twisting words!!!!

December 15, 2012 at 12:22 pm |

Iowan

Hi "I am God,"

Here is the portion of the First Amendment that deals with the so-called separation of church and state: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Which clause do you believe establishes that churches should have no interaction with the state?

December 15, 2012 at 12:22 pm |

Iowan

Hi mama K,

Do you believe that the personal correspondence of political figures carries with it the force of law? Or should we look at our actual laws to determine what the law is?

December 15, 2012 at 12:24 pm |

Lana

OUTSTANDING.

December 15, 2012 at 12:28 pm |

mama k

The Establishment Clause has been applied many times. I agree with the application in 1962 and 1963. These quotes, especially from Madison supports his intent.

December 15, 2012 at 12:29 pm |

Chris

Mary, please check your facts. Statistically, we are safer now than we have ever been, just as that percentage of "believers" has gone down. People don't die from war, disease, or lack or resources. We've become safer from war because most of our governments have taken up an idea first given to us by the clergy in the 1600s: that the clergy makes a lousy government. People don't die from disease because modern medicine, based on the scientific method, has cured an unimaginable list of diseases. As soon as we kicked God out of the operating room, we got safer. And finally, those same scientists developed drought-resistant grains that mean the Earth can feed many more billions than it once could.

God is nowhere in these accomplishments. It is the work of men and women. Just as our society occasionally produces a nutjob, it also produces its greatest minds. In times like these, stick up for the humans.

December 15, 2012 at 12:29 pm |

elena

the founders where a whole bunch of invader criminals and puritans. Now the leaders of the invaders wanted to be god and lead the shepple brought from Europe!

December 15, 2012 at 12:31 pm |

mama k

Madison realized (along with Mason, Jefferson, others) that the only way to enforce the Establishment Clause was to remove religion from government as much as possible. His writings support this notion.

December 15, 2012 at 12:34 pm |

Iowan

Hi mama K,

So, are you suggesting that each of the founding fathers' personal beliefs should be considered as law? How do you reconcile their individual personal beliefs that differed from one another (and were worked out through compromise)?

December 15, 2012 at 12:38 pm |

mama k

No lowan. I quote them only to indicate their intent. We only need to follow the Constitution and its Amendments regarding federal law. Of course, as noted, SCOTUS interprets and based on their interpretation can strike down laws.

By the way, our most recent Constitutional Amendment, number 27, adopted in 1992, was first introduced by James Madison in 1789.

December 15, 2012 at 12:46 pm |

Iowan

Hi mama K,

That is precisely my point. Taking the intent of the framers as a whole is one thing, but cherry-picking quotes from the personal correspondence of only a select few and then suggesting that is what is meant by our laws is a silly practice indeed.

December 15, 2012 at 12:54 pm |

Chris B

Let's overlook the millions upon millions who have died under the name of Christianity.

December 15, 2012 at 12:55 pm |

thinkstright2002

I believe in GOD oh and the DEVIL, The bible says there will be TRIALS and TRIBULATIONS, we as humans do not have, and will never have, the will to see things the way GOD does. As a Christian I myself have battles of the mind (questioning GOD when something goes wrong then I remember that ‘s what the devil wants me to do)The devil is a liar and a deceiver (oh yes he is!!) these things we have endure for a time. People we’re in the last days…it will get much worse it’s not going to get any better...Like the bible says, THOSE OF HAVE TO SEE LET THEM SEE, SOME WILL BE BLINDED TO THE END!!.. HAVE A BLESS DAY!! don’t attack God for it is written…
Revelation 21:4
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
John 16:33
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world
3 But understand this that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people
2 Corinthians 4:3-4)
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Matthew 10:28
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
1 Corinthians 2:14
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
Matthew 24:2
For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.

December 15, 2012 at 12:16 pm |

Here is Real

Bible verses, how quaint!

December 15, 2012 at 12:21 pm |

amolad7

God gives us free will. He will not MAKE us do anything.
THIS IS OUR PROBLEM.
The free will to live with guns everywhere or have NO guns whatsoever.
What do you think Jesus would say: everyone should have a gun or NO ONE should have a gun?

December 15, 2012 at 12:16 pm |

Mary Carter

Where is God? Let me see: you forced Him out of the schools some time ago, you have now forced Him out of the country and Christians are under siege for just wishing each other Merry Christmas, you deny Him every chance you get and ridicule people of any religion and you wonder where He is. How stupid can you get. God does not force himself on you – you have a choice and you have chosen evil and Satan so you can go about your lives enjoying yourselves to the utmost. Well, God will always be available when you call Him but you don't seem to want to admit you are not God and you don't have control over the world – yet. We are a pathetic country and I mourn for all of us.

December 15, 2012 at 12:16 pm |

I Am God

I'm only going to say this once. We do not need to have a Christian like government. We do not need a religion in our schools.

December 15, 2012 at 12:17 pm |

Smarter than U

Dude, the so called war on Xmas is an invention of Fox News. It exists no where else. If you change the channel, poof, no more war on Xmas.

December 15, 2012 at 12:22 pm |

JWT

Which of the many many gods and thousands of differeing views of god did you want the schools to indoctrinate all our children with Mary ? So many to choose from.

December 15, 2012 at 12:22 pm |

mama k

And how wimpy is your god if you think he can be forced out of anything? Sounds to me like you're trying to excuse poor parenting skills.

December 15, 2012 at 12:23 pm |

heidi nitka

Every day an American woman enters an abortion clinic to terminate her baby.
We do not cry over that. Yet we cry over young children being terminated in a school.

Unsuspecting kids are terminated every day in America. God has nothing to do with it.

December 15, 2012 at 12:14 pm |

Hey

fack off, obvious troll

December 15, 2012 at 12:15 pm |

Smarter than U

Let's say everyone in Newtown, or everyone in Connecticut, or everyone in the US or everyone in the world who are true believers, would get down on their knees and pray to God, or Vishnu, or Allah or whomever they identify as god, what do you think would happen. How would the survivors of this tragedy be benefited? How would they be comforted?

December 15, 2012 at 12:14 pm |

Blaster

And what you atheists will be doing to comfort them? Will you tell them that their kids,wife and husbands are dead and that there's no heaven so they might as well forget about seeing them again someday? Is this the philosophy of what atheism is all about. Then go over there and tell those families and relatives just that,i can't promise you won't be coming back home in the same shape you were before you left.

December 15, 2012 at 12:20 pm |

Here is Real

Blaster
You seem to have a very violent att*itude, not very christian.

December 15, 2012 at 12:24 pm |

Blaster

Who told you i was a christian? I can tell you i'm not, but that doesn't make me an atheist either. I reject atheism.

December 15, 2012 at 12:40 pm |

amazedamerican

Blaster

How will we comfort them? If i were drug over to one of those families (yes, youd have to drag me...if you dont know why then theres noi use explaining) id say i was sorry for their loss and offer any help they would need, then id give them their space.

if i was a parent of one of those kids, and a clergyman walked up to me, i would spit in his eye, throw his cross to the ground, and tell him to stick it where the sun don't shine

December 15, 2012 at 12:13 pm |

Bishop Hairy Palms

IF there is a God, he/she is either all-good but not all-powerful OR all-powerful but not all-good.

Otherwise there would not be this kind of suffering in the world.

December 15, 2012 at 12:11 pm |

Benedict Cruz

God is always there. but are you there for Him? you blame Him when you feel pain and suffering. yet when you are happy and elated, do you ever recognize Him?

December 15, 2012 at 12:16 pm |

Iowan

Are you implying that if God is good, then he must be a helicopter parent?

December 15, 2012 at 12:17 pm |

sayitisntso

Funny how so many people want god out of our schools but then when something like this happens people ask where was he? Maybe those people are winning and god wasn't allowed in the school.

December 15, 2012 at 12:18 pm |

elena

Your comment reflects your level of ignorance!! The other day in another forum I discussed with other what what we thought intelligence was. As I see it intelligence doesn't exist, what there is, is different level of understanding. there fore you lack the level of understanding to understand what God is and what the things that happen actually happen.

December 15, 2012 at 12:23 pm |

Blaster

Die hard atheist militants are nothing else than people who have a burning desire to insult people. They are not much different than bullies, they are not much different than psychopaths, they are very paranoid. They suffer from a superiority complex. They are not useful in this society, they take no part of any social associations based on helping the poor and needy ones. They are not supportive when it comes to comfort those in time of pains. They are cold and heartless.They have no compassion whatsoever. They are depraved of feelings.They are depraved of loving. They are negative and they also see enemies everywhere. Much more can be said about them but this give a pretty close picture of an atheist individual.

As an atheist, most of the charges you level at me I accept as true. I do feel superior to you in that I know i think more clearly that you. I am not deceived by a Bronze era myth. I am not brainwashed. That does give me a sense that I am way smarter than you.
Where I disagree with you is here "They are not useful in this society, they take no part of any social associations based on helping the poor and needy ones. They are not supportive when it comes to comfort those in time of pains. They are cold and heartless.They have no compassion whatsoever. They are depraved of feelings.They are depraved of loving. They are negative and they also see enemies everywhere."
I do a lot of things for my fellow man. I do a lot of work helping people an animals that cannot help themselves. However, when I do it I do so out of pure altruism. Unilke your coreligionists, I am NOT making a down payment on some heavenly reward.

What a load of rubbish you believe to compensate for your own feelings of inferiority. You should be grateful there is no god. If there were, you'd be a real embarrassment to him.

December 15, 2012 at 12:21 pm |

elena

Compton Sike, there is no need to ask god why atheist exist, the answer r is simple, we were created free to believe whatever we want to believe, but what ever you decide to believe in just better make sure it is right!

It is better to acknowledge the TRUTH, ... that God is Imaginary ... http://www.GodIsImaginary.com

The other alternative is believe the LIES ... that God exists, ... AND that he is EVIL and WICKED !!!
.

December 15, 2012 at 12:08 pm |

zaglossus

There is no God. And, let's remember, in the Third World there is great violence every day. Americans have, by and large, had it pretty good.

December 15, 2012 at 12:07 pm |

zaglossus

So says zaglossus the idiot.

December 15, 2012 at 12:09 pm |

Oh boy

In a nation of hicks who cannot control guns, wastes lives on meaningless drug charges and is armed to the teeth. Where's God? Come on, your kidding right?

December 15, 2012 at 12:06 pm |

SASSIE

"Where is GOD" people ask? Simple. GOD didn't leave us, but we left Him.

December 15, 2012 at 12:05 pm |

Compton Sike

Nope. There never was any god whatsoever throughout all of history. What you worship is your imagination. What a waste.

December 15, 2012 at 12:08 pm |

Hey

How did little five year old babies "leave god"?
Fuck you and fuck that disgusting pack of idiotic lies known as Christianity.

December 15, 2012 at 12:13 pm |

bornagain

That is right, we left God and He is leaving us on our own without His protection. We need a revival and return to the God of our founding fathers otherwise America will suffer more grief.

December 15, 2012 at 12:15 pm |

Scott G

30,000 innocent children die horrific, painful deaths each and every day from the parasites, pathogens and diseases your God designed, created and unleashed on this planet fully aware of the horror they would cause – let's hope there is no god – a sadistic cruel and malevolent dictator.

December 15, 2012 at 12:19 pm |

sam stone

How can you leave something that does not exist?

December 15, 2012 at 12:30 pm |

sam stone

"We need a revival and return to the God of our founding fathers otherwise America will suffer more grief"

The God of our founding fathers? The one that told them that they could own other people?

“God is the maker and taker of all things created and many things evolved. God creates and mankind takes their leads for or against God who forever lives inside our bodies! God is our beings’ husbandries and in rightfulness wants are we conceptualized into being in and for hopes of becoming better lots of the churnings upon masses of the mobbed generalists un-righteously denying God and the godly!”

“God is the master of all creations and of many things manifested to be evolved in being and for to be made by God’s husbandries handiworks of God’s pleasured abundances. For without creation being a manifestation, could there be any personages or could there be a world within a solar system arising in a galaxy whose clusters did establish our universe?”

The Holy Spirit of Godly Almightiness is the grand seas of Nothingness. In submissions of leavened faiths there are many adorned declarations of Godly physicality’s bemusements for the commoner’s better welfares in ever aging trials to be so tested! We all do yearn to know God and be of godliness principles but our faiths declare to most a dying tribulation of ever unfolded generalities made against God of the One to be as the Only; made out of sheer Nothingness!

Even of mankind's lost and forlorn are their compromises for God to be ever had. God wants no one to burn in a hellish fire made for the first evil doer and all said evil doer’s family! As our souls depart us come death's passing along ways, we are all taken up by God's almightiness seas of absolute Nothingness, then we are washed clean of our bitter memories here and given a new body in places deeply inside our ongoing generations' bodies!

The wills of all people is in their souls' nothingness that wraps up all embodied material matter known and made knowable to mankind. We are as seeds to Godliness virtues and death is but a gateway to the abundances of ever-lasting life in a plain and realm deeply inside all measuring of each and every manifestation of all things created and also evolved!

December 15, 2012 at 12:04 pm |

Canuck

Amen

December 15, 2012 at 12:06 pm |

THE REALIST

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..... GOD IS IMAGINARY __ http://www.GodIsImaginary.com
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Perhaps Lanza learned to MURDER innocent children from reading of god's acts in the Bible?
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YES, – if you are a christian, ... you WORSHIP an EVIL MASS MURDERER! _ SHAME SHAME SHAME !!!!!
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The Christian God does NOT care about human life, adult or child.

How many has God killed? How many people did God kill in the Bible?
More than 25,000,000 people! ........................ adults and CHILDREN !!!

It is better to acknowledge the TRUTH, ... that God is Imaginary ... http://www.GodIsImaginary.com

The other alternative is believe the LIES ... that he exists, ... AND that he is EVIL and WICKED !!!

December 15, 2012 at 12:09 pm |

Bootyfunk

where was God? in his usual place - the imagination.

December 15, 2012 at 12:03 pm |

felix navidad

Only a useless pos would use this event to further their own sick twisted view of life and faith.

December 15, 2012 at 12:06 pm |

Compton Sike

So I guess felix is a useless pos. Thanks felix for letting us know how stupid you really are.

December 15, 2012 at 12:09 pm |

kitty

If god created everyone in its image than god to a murderer. Felix how could you believe in a being that helped creat a murder than call Bootyfunk a pos for not believing in such a horrible being? If god did exist, why would it create murders, rapist, child molesters, and diseases that spread like wildfire in 3rd world countries. And why would you believe in something that does those things? That seems horrible to me. Its a tragedy what happened to these kids and the parents who lost a child. It's also a tragedy that people hope there kids would go to the hands of someone who helped create a monster.

The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.